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South of the Financial District, LaSalle Street gets cut off for a while by the Amtrak/Metra Rail yard from Taylor St to 1600 South. It runs parallel to the Rock Island District Metra line. South of 26th Street, it serves as a frontage road for the Dan Ryan Expressway until 47th street, where it merges with Wentworth Avenue. South of 47th, it starts and stops as a local street until it finally terminates at West 147th Street in Riverdale.

The street was nicknamed "The Canyon" due to the tall, steep buildings that lie on both ends of the relatively narrow street, with the Chicago Board of Trade Building as the abrupt end of the apparent box canyon.[1]

LaSalle was one of three streets in Chicago to have a tunnel under the Chicago River, the other two being W. Washington St. and W. Van Buren St. Constructed in 1869-71, the 2000 foot long tunnel alleviated interruptions from bridge openings due to heavy river traffic and served as an escape route during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Originally open to only pedestrians and private vehicles, the LaSalle tunnel was turned over to cable car companies in the 1880s, since it was impossible for cable car systems to span the movable bridges. Closed in 1906, the tunnel was deepened and reopened to electric street car traffic in 1911-12. The tunnel was closed permanently in 1939 to make way for subway construction.[2]